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Comment by dkns | Hacker News Reader

What are some other must reads from cyberpunk genre (beside Count Zero and Mona Liza Overdrive)?

Snowcrash. I love Buring Chrome, which is Gibson's short stories. True Names. Wetware/Freeware. Basically, start with Gibson, then Neal Stephenson, take some drugs and read Rudy Rucker, then have a mint julep and read some Bruce Sterling. Sprinkle lightly with Vernor Vinge, and end with some Dick.

I remember having at home Mirrorshades, a cyberpunk antology[1]. It contains short novels by Gibson and others and it was edited by Bruce Sterling. Unfortunately many years have passed so I don't remember if it was good..

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Mirrorshades-Cyberpunk-Anthology-Greg-...

I really liked Mirrorshades, if for no other reason that it showcased a variety of styles. It's been a while since I read it but I recall thinking it pretty good. It might have been what got me to read Rudy Rucker's stuff.

You can read all of Rucker's short stories (which I find to be better than his novels) here:

http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/

The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner is 10 years older than Neuromancer and considered one of the first cyberpunk novels. Amazingly, it still holds up and feels plausibly futuristic, even to this day.

Hardwired Water John Williams

Proto /early CP

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep - Philip K Dick Babel 17 - Delany Fury - Kutner/More Tiger! Tiger! (The stars my destination) - Bester And Arguably Gravity's Rainbow

It's not cyberpunk, but I enjoyed Altered Carbon quite a bit, which does a good job of capturing a similar noir feeling.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon

Agreed, had a very similar vibe. Still doubtful about reading the sequels, though. Have you checked them?

They are largely more of the same. I enjoyed them.

I didn't enjoy either of the sequels nearly as much as Altered Carbon. I don't think you'd miss out on much if you skipped them.

I think Broken Angels did a good job of carrying the feeling of Altered Carbon forward. I haven't yet read the final trilogy member, Woken Furies.

If you can get any of the Interzone anthologies there are some excellent examples of cyberpunk short fiction, and other sub-genres.

(This is Interzone the magazine, before it went to TTA press. I have no idea what it's like now; this isn't a judgement about what they're doing. But I remember reading some excellent stories way back.)

I also strongly recommend Bruce Sterling - a great author and seems a bit under-appreciated.

Snowcrash is an amazing book. I dislike the way Stephenson does exaggeration but that's just me.

"MirrorShades" was the anthology. I think it was good.

J.G. Ballard wrote excellent stories about people and places who are on their way to a cyberpunk future.

It's closer to "proto-cyberpunk" but I can't recommend John Brunner's classic The Shockwave Rider[1] highly enough.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shockwave_Rider

I'm going to echo Snow Crash. It's a bit silly at times when you stop to think about the pictures being drawn, but it's also quite prescient as more and more of the world starts to actually look like the cyberpunk worlds.

Snow Cradh's silliness is a feature: Stephenson was taking the piss out of Gibson.

Rudy Rucker's Ware tetralogy[1]. I've actually not read the 4th book, though (yet).

A fantastic tale, with lots of robots. And icecream trucks...

[1] http://amzn.com/1607012111

You forgot to mention the sentient, shape-shifting, dildos. Seriously. The whole series is focused on them as characters.

Rucker made the Ware books available free online under a Creative Commons license: http://www.rudyrucker.com/wares/#waresdownload if anyone wants to check them out.

Nice, I didn't know that!

I recently tried to make a list of good virtual reality reads (not all of them cyberpunk, though):

Otherland - Tad Williams

Ready Player One

Daemon - David Suarez

Neuromancer - William Gibson

Shadowrun - ?? there are lots of possibly varying quality, I only read the ones by Nigel Findley which I liked

Snowcrash - Stephenson

Reamde - Stephenson

Der falsche Spiegel - Sergej Lukianenko (not sure about the english name)

Masters of Doom - Story of ID developing the games Doom and Quake - not really a VR story, but it sets the mood.

Pollen - Jeff Noon

Bruce Sterling is great, too, but I don't remember which of his stories are about virtual reality.

I suppose Ian Bank's "The Culture" novels might be a candidate, but I haven't read them yet.

Iain (M) Banks' "Culture" novels are great fun, but they are (IMHO) in no way cyberpunk, nor do they concern VR. His SF is about people running around in meatspace doing things.

well okay there's a decent chunk of VR in 'Feersum Endjiin' but that's very much the exception

I see - didn't know that. I thought they are about artificial life or a society that chose to withdraw into cyberspace. But as I said, I haven't read them.

Lukianenko's book name in English is "Labyrinth of Reflections". I loved Lukianenko and read all his books (in Russian) until I realized that I am strongly opposed to his political views.

I must admit I don't really know his political views. Do you mean what shines through in his books, or do you have some other source (like interviews with him or whatever)? I have only read his books, and only the ones that have been translated to German.

Have you read "Das Schlangenschwert"? I really liked his reflections on society in that one.

No, I would not say his political views shine through his books. But he is pretty vocal about them in his Russian-language blog: http://dr-piliulkin.livejournal.com/

I cannot really figure out what would be the name of the book you mentioned, in Russian or English, but most likely no - I have not read it.

Vernor Vinge's True Names should be on that list as well.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1280983.True_Names

Another vote for Neuromancer, Snowcrash and the relatively little-known but excellent Pollen. I read some Iain Banks recently at the behest of an old friend who I introduced to science fiction over 15 years ago, but didn't find it particularly engrossing. Embassytown by China Miéville was an excellent and pithy meditation on the nature of communication, albeit longer than I would have deemed necessary.

I enjoyed these books by Charles Stross, Accelerando, Halting State and the follow up, but not sequel, Rule 34, and of course The Rapture of the Nerds, co-written with Cory Doctorow. Also I've enjoyed his non cyberpunkish books especially The Laundry Files series. I also liked William Hertlings Singularity series, Avogadro Corp, A.I. Apocalypse and The Last Firewall, all about how AGI could accidentally arise.

I just read Glasshouse by Stross, that was pretty solid as well. One part I enjoyed was there was a tiny bit of the "unreliable narrator" device thrown in (I won't say in what part of the book).

Dick is the master of this device, but it worked in Glasshouse.

More from Neal Stephenson: Diamond Age is good, Cryptonomicon is fantastic. Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire is interesting as well.

I found Cryptonomicon a bit shallow and absurdly hyperactive, but then I read it more or less back to back with Le Carre's Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy.

When gravity fails, George Alec Effinger

Part 1 of a trilogy. Absolutely fantastic.

I hesitate to say more than "read it." If you don't like it after 30 pages, bail, it's not your cup of tea.

Gibson's Bridge trilogy steps a little further from cyberpunk, but they are still excellent reads that are thematically and stylistically similar.

Stephenson's Snow Crash.

I could hardly put down Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash. Phenomenal.

Donnerjack (Zelazny and Lindskold) is an interesting point in the space, though doesn't rise to the level of some of the others (IMO).

Does someone really dislike Donnerjack and not want it mentioned, really like Donnerjack and think I should be praising it more highly, think it doesn't fit in the genre at all, or was it just fat-fingered?

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